A method of this kind is, for example, disclosed in German patent publication 3,727,122. This publication describes a control apparatus which is intended to ensure that an actuator, such as an idle actuator, of an internal combustion engine is provided with current of a specific magnitude flowing therethrough. This magnitude of the current is determined by a current controller accommodated in a control apparatus. This current controller continuously adjusts the current so that its magnitude corresponds to a particular desired value while considering an actual value determined utilizing a measurement resistor. However, the current adjusted in this manner deviates frequently from the desired value of the current especially because of deviations of the resistance value of the measurement resistor. A balancing of the current controller is conducted in order to prevent such deviations. For this purpose, a balancing computer is connected to the control apparatus and inputs a desired value for the current to the control apparatus and then determines the deviation between this desired value and the magnitude of the current to be actually adjusted in response thereto. The real magnitude of the current is determined from the voltage drop on a calibrated current measurement resistor utilized in lieu of the actuator. The deviation, which is determined by the balancing computer, is given to the control apparatus and is there stored in the form of a corrective factor. In normal operation of the control apparatus, the desired value, which is to be supplied to the current controller, is multiplied by the corrective factor before it is used.
Experience has shown that a current controller balancing of this kind does not always lead to the desired result. More specifically, even with the use of a current controller, which is balanced as described, differences between the desired value and the real magnitude of the current can occur which are no longer tolerable. The above notwithstanding, the balancing has been shown to be complicated and subject to error especially because of the provision of the described balancing computer.